With the sad passing of Bobby Genova, I remember this story from the old days in Chicago. Genova, Ron Jeremy, my buddy from the business, Jack Stephan, Sasha Gabor and some other people were dining out at a Greek restaurant one evening while in town.

Sasha began drinking Ouzo and lots of it. He had told everyone at the dinner table he needed to go to the bathroom but disappeared to the bar where he began knocking down shot after shot. When he returned to the table, Sasha passed out face down in his food.

Jeremy apologized to the owner who informed him what Sasha had been up to. By the time Sasha was taken back to the hotel where he was sharing a room with Genova, he was reasonably coherent. Sasha then explained to Genova that he gets drunk a lot like that and that Genova should hold on to his American Express card or else he would do more stupid shit with it.

Genova said fine. But when Sasha tried getting it back from Genova he went off the wall, left the room and came back with a small caliber gun, cocked it and demanded that Genova give him the card back. Genova, however, remained cool and unruffled.

“You’re sober as a church mouse I can see,” Genova told Sasha, obviously lying, and then handed the card back to him.